1. Field of the Invention
The present embodiments relate to a plasma display panel (PDP), and more particularly, to a PDP that can prevent neon discharge in non-discharge regions around a display region of the PDP that does not have transparent electrodes (ITOless).
2. Description of the Related Art
A PDP is a flat panel display device that displays images using plasma discharge of a gas in discharge cells constituting pixels. Recently, PDPs have received much attention as large flat panel display apparatuses since they can be manufactured to be thin, have a wide viewing angle, and can display high quality images.
A conventional alternating current (AC) three-electrode surface discharge type PDP includes a front panel and a rear panel. The front panel includes a front substrate, a plurality of sustain electrode pairs that are formed on the front substrate and generate sustain discharge, an upper dielectric layer that covers the sustain electrode pairs, and a passivation film coated on the upper dielectric layer. The rear panel includes a rear substrate, a plurality of address electrodes which are formed on the rear substrate and generate address discharge together with the sustain electrode pairs, a lower dielectric layer that covers the address electrodes, and a plurality of barrier ribs that define a plurality of discharge cells constituting pixels. A sealing layer is formed using frit glass on edges of the front panel and the rear panel. After aligning the front and rear panels, the sealing layer formed of frit glass is annealed to combine the front and rear panels by melting the sealing layer. Afterwards, air in each of the discharge cells and non-discharge regions is exhausted and a discharge gas is filled in the discharge cells. The discharge gas can be a gas mixture containing Ne gas mixed with Xe gas.
When a pulse voltage greater than a discharge breakdown voltage is alternately applied to the sustain electrode pairs of each of the discharge cells, plasma discharge is generated. Xe gas atoms are excited by colliding with electrons, and the Xe gas atoms generate ultraviolet rays when the excited Xe gas atoms are stabilized. The ultraviolet rays excite red, green, and blue color phosphor layers formed on the barrier ribs, and visible light is emitted from the phosphor layers and is transmitted through the front panel forming an image. However, the neon gas atoms emit orange visible light when the excited neon gas atoms are stabilized. The orange visible light reduces color purity and contrast of the image, thereby reducing display quality. In the prior art, to avoid the color purity and contrast reducing problem, a red color filter, a green color filter, and a blue color filter are formed corresponding to the red, green, and blue color discharge cells on a side of a panel through which the visible light passes, or dielectric color filters in which color filters respectively formed one unit in a dielectric layer are used to block the orange visible light emitted from the neon gas atoms. In this way, the affect of the neon discharge in the discharge cells is reduced.
Non-discharge regions defined by an outermost barrier rib and the frit glass sealing layer are located around a display region which consists of discharge cells, and the non-discharge regions are also filled with the discharge gas that contains neon gas. End terminals of the sustain electrode pairs that generate sustain discharge pass through the non-discharge regions located on left and right sides of the PDP. During a sustain discharge, a neon discharge can occur between the sustain electrodes and scan electrodes.
In particular, in the case of ITOless PDPs that do not use transparent electrodes to reduce material costs, at least two sustain electrodes and scan electrodes respectively are used instead of using one sustain electrode and scan electrode, to achieve stable discharge and to increase light emission efficiency. Also, to prevent crosstalk between adjacent discharge cells and to increase brightness, the sustain electrodes and the scan electrodes can be modified in various ways including the numbers thereof, location arrangement, and methods of driving. In this case, neon discharge is more likely to occur in the non-discharge regions.
When neon discharge occurs in the non-discharge regions located around the discharge region, orange visible light generated from the neon discharge is transmitted through the front panel, thereby reducing display quality of images of the PDP.